Thursday, February 19, 2009

The Lamp

Earlier this week a friend sent me an e-mail with his thoughts on Matthew 5:15 " Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lamp stand, and it gives light to allwho are in the house." This just confirmed a thought I was having about what to write this week.

I have a small table in my office with a lamp on it (picture attached). The thing that most people do not know is that the lamp serves no purpose other than it looks nice. As a matter of fact, there isn't even a plug on the wall if I decided I wanted to use it. I tell you this to drive home a point - I believe that God created each one of us with a purpose. The Apostle Paul affirms this when he wrote to the Galatians:

Galatians 1: 15 But when God, who set me apart from birth and called me by his grace, was pleased 16to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles...

Paul was not super human, he was a sinner saved by grace just like you and me. He had an encounter with the God of the universe and made a decision to follow Him with everything he had.

James, in his letter, reaffirms this idea.

James 5: 17, 18 Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. 18Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.

Again, here is another man of God who, the Bible says, was just like you and me but did some amazing things. Elijah cried out to God and brought a child back to life. Elijah called fire down from heaven that consumed his sacrifice before the prophets of Baal.(I Kings 17, 18)

I believe God wants to use every one of us. Rich or poor, man or woman, polished speaker or glossophobic.

Jeremiah 1: 5 "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations."

Before Jeremiah was born God set him apart, he had a purpose for Jeremiah in eternity past. Think about that for a minute. Thousands of years before you or I were born God knew what he wanted us to do with our lives. However for so many of us, we are like my lamp. We are just hanging around, looking good, taking up space. But what would happen if we got plugged in to what God wanted us to do. What if we got plugged in and let our light shine. As the verse Charlie sent me talks about. I would challenge you to really seek out what God has set you apart for as I am doing the same. Whether it is great or small in the eyes of man, it does not matter, what matters is your obedience to God.

I Samuel 15: 22 But Samuel replied: "Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the LORD ? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.